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May 3, 2006

Glitter set for appeal in Vietnam

by Sam Savage

HANOI (Reuters) - Disgraced British "glam rocker" Gary
Glitter, sentenced to three years in a Vietnamese jail for
molesting children, will appeal to the country's Supreme Court
on May 19, his lawyer said on Wednesday.

Lawyer Le Thanh Kinh said Glitter, 61, would be moved to
the courtroom in Ho Chi Minh City on the same day of the
hearing from the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau where he
has been imprisoned since last November.

"It will be a one-day hearing on May 19, and the appeal is
against both the factors used in the accusation and the
sentence," Kinh said from his office in the city, formerly
Saigon, about 80 miles northwest of Vung Tau.

Kinh was confirming the appeal date reported in state-run
media on Sunday.

On March 3, Glitter was found guilty after a one-day,
closed trial of molesting two 11-year-old girls in the resort
town of Vung Tau. The judge said the singer would be deported
from Vietnam after serving the sentence.

Born Paul Francis Gadd, Glitter rose to fame in the 1970s
with pop songs and a flamboyant hairstyle.

In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corporation
released on Tuesday, the now shaven-headed Glitter said he had
done nothing wrong.

"I don't believe I have slept with an under-age girl,"
Glitter told the BBC. "It was only recently that I found out
that under-age is 18 in this country, okay, but I don't believe
that I slept with anyone under 18 in this country."

As he did after the March trial, Glitter blamed the British
media for his ending up in a Southeast Asian jail cell.

"The only thing I think about is trying to win the appeal
and trying to put some honor and dignity back to my family, my
friends and the fans who've supported me all this time," the
singer said.

Glitter, already registered as a sex offender in Britain
after a 1999 child pornography conviction, was arrested at Ho
Chi Minh City airport in November 2005 while trying to leave
Vietnam.